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Westlife have announced the cancellation of a string of UK shows - and are expected to shortly announce whether their two concerts in Cork will go ahead in August.

With the group following the lead of many other major music acts in calling a halt to summer tour plans, it looks increasingly likely that their entire tour will be cancelled.

Their shows in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on August 28th and 29th, may be towards the end of the summer and at a time when the pandemic is expected to have passed.

However, a major summer stadium tour is a hugely expensive and complex undertaking, and with the early part of the show now cancelled, the remaining dates are likely to go the same way.

The band tweeted out the bad news to their fans in the UK this lunchtime, saying that having taken advice, they have to put the safety of their concert-goers first and would be cancelling the early shows of their summer tour.

They are now talking to the promoters of the shows scheduled for the rest of the summer, which will include their Irish dates.

They had been due to play Wembley Stadium in London on August 22nd before finalising their tour with their only Irish dates over two nights in Cork.

Those dates - in Wembley and Cork - are still on for the moment. But a decision is expected to be made very shortly on whether the rest of the summer tour will have to be called off.

Tickets will be refunded for the shows cancelled so far and the band hope to reschedule and shows they do miss.

We will have news on their Cork dates as soon as it is announced as there is still some hope for the fans who planned to see them in Cork at the end of August.

However, it looks like the entire tour could now be shelved as the live music industry goes through a prolonged shutdown.